His Own Place in the Sun

When Michael Stevens came out to Hollywood six years ago, one of the first things he did was check out the historic Mann’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

“I remember going over there one night by myself having moved out here [from Washington, D.C.,] and not quite sure if I was ever going to make a movie,” says Stevens, 33. “For a lot of people who come to Los Angeles and want to work in film, it’s a rite of passage.”

Exploring the various handprints of stars, producers and directors immortalized in cement, he spotted the hand- and footprints of his grandfather, Oscar-winning George Stevens, who directed such memorable movies as “A Place in the Sun,” “Giant,” “Shane,” “Alice Adams” and “Gunga Din.”

“I remember putting my hand in my grandfather’s handprints,” says the soft-spoken Stevens in a recent interview. “And my feet in his shoe prints and looking across the street and seeing the El Capitan Theatre.”

On Tuesday, a family tradition continues as Stevens’ directorial debut, “Bad City Blues,” premieres at the El Capitan as part of the 13th annual AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival.

“Things have a nice way of working out, I guess,” he says. “There is a nice history and nice symbolism coming back with this first film and premiering it in historical Hollywood.”

Though Stevens’ Emmy Award-winning producer-director father, George Stevens Jr., founded the American Film Institute, Stevens says festival director Jon Fitzgerald “didn’t know him from Adam” when he called to see if he could screen his film for Fitzgerald.

“He looked at it and called me and said, ‘We would like this picture to be in the festival.’ I suspect that he probably figured out at some point my connection with AFI. But it was important that the film stand on its own two feet because this is really a town where everyone is suspicious of everyone’s level of skill.”

A neo-noir, the dark, gritty “Bad City Blues” is a thriller about betrayal, killing, revenge and ultimately redemption. Dennis Hopper, who had his first major role in “Giant,” appears briefly in the film.

“I did the film basically because George Stevens gave me my beginning in movies,” Hopper says. “George Stevens Jr. and I were also very close friends.”

Michael Stevens, says Hopper, was very much like his grandfather on the set. “He was very calm like his grandfather and very organized,” Hopper says.

Stevens’ father didn’t show up until about the third week of shooting in a small cabin in Chatsworth. “I had to stand in another room and I could look behind the corner from behind the camera,” George Stevens Jr. recalls. “I heard this kind of classical music playing, and that was something my father always did. Then the music went off and I heard Michael’s voice. It was soft and encouraging. It sounded like my father.”

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Directing was something Stevens had been mulling over a while. “But I came to deciding to make films from a totally different world,” he explains.

Stevens grew up in Washington, D.C., not Hollywood like his father. “My world was journalism, sports, politics, girls and going out,” he says.

He didn’t really investigate his grandfather’s legacy until he lived in Paris for three years. While writing “the great American novel,” he saw his grandfather’s movies at the Parisian revival theaters. “It was a process of discovery of myself,” Stevens says. “I discovered that I did indeed have instincts that needed to be fulfilled creatively.”

So he came back to Washington and worked as a producing partner on various projects with his father, including the “AFI Life Achievement Award” and “Christmas in Washington” TV specials.

“I made my way out here doing my television specials,” he says. “That had been my area of apprenticeship. At the same time, I was writing screenplays and thinking about what makes films work.”

He spent five months in Australia as an associate producer two years ago on Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line.”

“It was an ideal workshop to be in as a director,” Stevens explains. “I left knowing I had it in me to make a film and produce a film. I hadn’t spent a lot of time around sets, but I had good instincts. I can’t underestimate how much confidence that process provided me.”

Five years ago, he got to know British novelist and screenwriter Tim Willocks when his father and Mike Medavoy were hired to produce a film. Stevens was introduced to Willocks by a development executive.

“He and I became not only friends, but became spiritual partners on creative journeys that people go on,” Stevens recalls. “He had written an extremely successful novel called ‘Green River Rising’ and was much in demand as a screenwriter, but he felt in terms of actually getting films made, he was not where he wanted to be.

In the spring of 1997, Stevens received an e-mail from Willocks asking him to direct “Bad City Blues,” which was based on his first novel of the same name.

Stevens jumped at the chance, and the two worked on the script via e-mail while he was in Australia. “I really feel that you have to come to the table if you are a first-time director with a project you initiated yourself. There is so much competition.”

Going the independent route, Stevens and Willocks were able to make their vision for the film a reality. “We wanted to be true to one ideal all the way through--is forgiveness a far superior act to revenge or not?” Stevens says.

“It’s an extremely dark look at human beings and their darkest motivations and what they struggle with to prevent themselves from acting out on those very, very dark impulses.”

Both Stevens and Willocks put up 20% of the budget. At this point, Stevens will only say that it was produced for less than $5 million.

They used their seed money to “persuade, cajole and convince whomever [to give money]. It ended up being 19 friends who invested in the film. Unlike the directors of my grandfather’s generation, where there were apprenticeships at studios, the film world is so different today. You have to go out on your own.”

The first day on the set was overwhelming for Stevens, who remembers thinking: “ ‘I am responsible for it. I have to lead it, and there is money at stake.’ Directing is a great, great burden.”

Eventually, everything was ready for the first shot, which took place in a cafe. “Everything felt right,” Stevens recalls. “The first [assistant director] looked around at me, and the cameraman said he was ready, and the A.D. screamed, ‘Quiet on the set.’ I looked around and said, ‘Action.’ ”

But nothing happened. His director of photography, Zoran Popovic, looked over at Stevens and said, “Michael, you have got to wait for the A.D. to say, ‘Sound is rolling’ before you say, ‘Action.’ So of course, on my first take I flub all the protocol.”

But Stevens quickly recovered. “Not to embarrass myself, I suddenly added: ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s all going to be voice-over and we don’t need sound.’ Then everyone looked around and said, ‘This guy knows his stuff.’ ”

“There must have been 20 people on the set,” says Stevens. One of them had particular relevance for Stevens--his 94-year-old grandmother, Yvonne. The family history continues. *